For Dodgers’ Rob Segedin, off-day could bring a special delivery

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Last year amounted to a series of fits and starts for Dodgers infielder Rob Segedin, with a couple injuries and 13 forgettable major league games in between. Segedin finished with four hits in 20 at-bats. At Triple-A, he batted .320 in 27 games. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

GLENDALE, Ariz. — You can only time the birth of a child so well, but Rob Segedin seems to have this down to an art form.

The Dodgers were playing in Cincinnati in August 2016 when Segedin hit his first career home run. The team flew back to Los Angeles after the game. He hit another home run, then left the game in the eighth inning to go to a local hospital, where his wife Robin delivered the couple’s first child, a son named Robinson.

Segedin said his wife is due to give birth to the couple’s second child, a girl, on Tuesday. That just happens to be the Dodgers’ first off-day of the Cactus League season.

“Hopefully it comes as planned so we can minimize the amount of games I miss,” he said.

In his third year with the Dodgers, Segedin could use a good spring training to re-establish his standing on the depth chart.

After his memorable two days in 2016 (two home runs in two cities, plus a baby), Segedin had 12 RBIs in his first 15 major league games. He’s driven in one run as a Dodger in nearly two years since.

Last year amounted to a series of fits and starts, with a couple injuries and 13 forgettable major league games in between. Segedin finished with four hits in 20 at-bats. At Triple-A, he batted .320 in 27 games.

Segedin was on the disabled list from April 19-Aug. 15 with a strained toe. In the meantime, he had surgery to remove a bone spur from his right hand. The problem never fully went away and he had surgery again in the offseason, this time to fuse two bones in his right hand.

“It might have been something I had to deal with once my career was over,” he said. “That’s how I kind of decided on it.”

In spring training, Segedin was among those felled by a clubhouse-wide virus. He went to the hospital with a fever of 104 and received IV fluids. Saturday’s game against the Chicago Cubs was only his second Cactus League start.

“Everything’s coming one after another right now,” he said. “Once the minor leaguers start playing games, you can kind of make up numerous at-bats in a short time. That’s probably something I’ll have to do to catch up.”

JANSEN’S DEBUT RESCHEDULED

Kenley Jansen was in good spirits one day after a hamstring injury nixed his first Cactus League appearance. Jansen said he felt his left hamstring “grab” on his final warm-up sprint while preparing to enter Friday’s game against the Kansas City Royals. He got on a mound to throw but the problem persisted.

“I really wanted to pitch (Friday) but c’mon, it’s a spring training game,” he said. “It’s not going to help anything.”

Jansen said he didn’t run Saturday and spent 45 minutes walking on a treadmill instead. His first appearance is now targeted for Monday, a “B” game against the Chicago White Sox. His second appearance is targeted for Thursday, a Cactus League game against the Royals.

ALSO

One of Walker Buehler’s recent bullpen outings was not in the Dodgers’ camp. The right-hander visited Driveline Baseball’s mobile biomechanics lab in Scottsdale and threw “26 to 28” pitches. The Driveline equipment, he said, offers sophisticated biomechanical data beyond the naked-eye observations that pitchers typically receive in camp. … Roberts said that a small round of roster cuts, the first of camp, would be announced late Saturday and a larger round would be announced Sunday. … Minor league games begin Monday. … Infielder Drew Jackson, a non-roster invitee, “tweaked his back” during a rundown and will be held out of game action a couple days, Roberts said.